Month: May 2008

I had plans to take SCH to 75, so I can finally have my first mage job. But due to sudden events in the game, I’m halting SCH at 60 and continuing MNK, which I left off at 47.

During my SCH days of 10~60, the most boring periods are where I only have access to the first strategem and only have 1 charge.

Things slightly got better when I have 2 charges, but it was still hard to play SCH. In some PTs, I had to do erase and dispel. Having 2 charges with 2 minute recasts and because of SCH mechanics, it was difficult for me to switch between the 2 spells.

When I’ve reached the level for 3 charges and having access to Accession, this is when the job starts to get interesting.

Depending on the PT setup, I would choose between /RDM and /NIN. If we had a lot of melees and a PLD tank, I would opt for /RDM to give party members en-spells. As I already have capped enhancing magic from my PLD, the extra damage from these en-spells are mostly 15. Which is almost as good as having TP-free damage from 1~2 extra melees?

And if we had a NIN tank, I would sub /WHM for Stoneskin-ga to help him put shadows back up. But most NINs I PTed with couldn’t make good use of it. Perhaps I didn’t use enough MND equipment to give stronger Stoneskin or I’ve overestimated it for mid level parties.

1 min 20 sec for the charges to recover also made it a lot easier to switch between the 2 addendums for dispel and erase.

Motivation for Monk

I tend to level certain jobs as a way to show my appreciation towards my friends who’ve left FFXI. So yea, another friend has left. :(

I thought I wouldn’t feel anything this time but because we became quite close, and he is one of the FFXI players whom I’ve met in real life when I visited Japan last year, it was sad to see him go.

So to you, Z, I will level MNK to 75!

Thus for the past few days, I’ve been soloing EP/DC monsters for guard skill ups. It’s slow and I’ve already gained 3 levels, lol. Currently soloing Colibris in East Ronfaure [S], it’s suitable for LV48-51, I believe. My guard is in the 90s now. I don’t know how far my patience can hold before I start seeking for PTs, but for now, I’m just going to try to cap it.

Thoughts on PT setups

I’ve always believed that there shouldn’t be a fixed setup for making PTs. But at least, the basic tank and support job has to be there. Or not? (Healing breath setups, but usually for LV75 merit PTs)

As I levelled SCH in PTs, I’ve been in odd setups that work because the players are skillful and able to adapt. I’ve also been in the standard setup PT that didn’t work out well simply because 1 player really sucked.

Just wanted to let this out because I’ve been hearing a lot of people complaining about their PT setups the moment they joined the PT. Before they’ve given it a chance, before they’ve tried adjusting their play style a little to suit the odd PT setup.

In odd setups, the first hour is usually the worst. But once every player gets used to it, it may eventually turn out to be a very fun levelling session!

FFXI has 20 different jobs to play, and since I don’t static, I get to level in different PT setups. Different PT setups = different play styles = fun. This is what I’ve always believed in. Well, as long as each player knows their job well enough D:

And my very first WotG NM. Saw it wandering unclaimed while searching for the Indescript Markings for my SCH AF quest. Quite easy to solo as PLD/WHM. Used Chivalry once for MP, wore my shield skill equip. No drop (some katana worth 100,000g) and only got 42 limit points from it.

There’s a bee that follows it around closely as it moves, that bee cons too weak and you could probably just ignore it, but I chose to kill it first while the NM continues to hit me while unclaimed. I tried to pull the bee first but it linked with the NM. Don’t know if it was sight/sound link or just links anyway.

Ok, so we all know how irritating it is when someone puts /say or /em into their frequently mashed macros right? I had a good laugh when this happened.

Finally got the new GP furniture item for cooking. Helped me free up a lot of mog safe slots as I can now put up my Windurstian flag for more wind strength without overwriting the moghancement:cooking effect.

When I first saw the title, I wondered what kind of restaurant should it be? Then considering the only foodstuffs I craft and sell nowadays for cooking are pasta foods, without hesitation, I decided it would be a pasta restaurant. Haha

My social, I repeat, _social_ linkshell, attempted our second proto-omega fight. The first one was rather disastrous with bodies falling everywhere but we won anyways with 17 people (including friends not in the LS), with less than 3 minutes left on the clock. This first one was back in September 2006. Time flies…

This second run, with only 11 members, went a lot smoother and faster.

PT 1: PLD/NIN PLD/NIN RDM BRD WHM SAMPT 2: BLM BLM BLM MNK COR

I think we took about 20 minutes, had 3 deaths. 1 from the SAM who got hate around the middle of the fight, 2 from Tuufless, 1st one I believe is from the Gunpods, perhaps it triple-attacked? And 1 from taking hate from nuking during Omega’s last form.

I requested for 2x March, and coupled with haste, I believe it can be solo-tanked easily by an average PLD/NIN. But a second tank is required for those hate reset TP abilities from omega.

Lots of paralyze procs from Trebla’s paralyze II, made it possible to just use utsu:ichi alone, lol

Drops were body, legs, feet. Body went to Myoha, legs to Crixis and feet to Tottie.

Now for the obligatory dance break. D:

Now the minor stuff.

Our salvage runs have been going fine. I won lot on 2 LV15 pieces for Ares’ hands and feet. There’s only 1 competitor for Ares, lol

I’ve begun participating in dynamis again. Had Sollanon introduce me into Zorinsoul. This time, it’s a sleep-friendly time schedule, haha. My previous LS, ExplorerII, had runs in 12am and 4am. My new one now has runs once a week, starting at 6.30pm. It’s a pretty comfortable schedule for me.

And on my first run, happens to be Xarcabard and they were going for Shadow Lord. D:

I was sooo unprepared for it.

I even lost TP before the fight because I switched grips forgetting that it resets TP. So I just equipped haste gear, ate sushi and because we had a BRD giving us Soul Voice marches, I just went Last Resort + Souleater + Blood weapon and let myself swing away.

Aegis update:

5% complete!

For crafting, my smithing mule is just 0.2 away from finishing. Alchemy mule has reached 100. Suprisingly, or perhaps I just had very good luck, alchemy is cheap to bring it to 100. It had 800k originally and now it’s down to 100k. But I did some T3 synths along the way to cover the costs. It also has the 2 +1 equipment and +1 furniture. The whole process probably took about 6 months?

Ending this post with just another screenshot that shows the importance of HP merits! lol